I’ve been a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan for quite a long time now – about 15 years I think. I’ve always liked their funkier work more than their mid tempo balladry. That is, I listen to ‘Mother’s Milk‘ and ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik‘ more than ‘Californication‘ and ‘By The Way‘, but I’m not slighting those albums either as they both have tracks in my top 50 most listened to. I was intrigued though that the new release “Stadium Arcadium” would be a double album given that that usually sends the signal of a desperate record company realising they don’t have enough for a single decent outing.
I was also wondering whether they were following their previous two (very similar) releases, or whether they’d be trying something else.
I’ve only had the CDs for a couple of days – listening to them in a hotel room in Hong Kong, and on my iPod coming back to Tokyo – and so far my fears don’t hold – both CDs are well worth listening to. RHCP seem to have tried to do a few more funky tracks here, as well as the more soulful recent stylings on this outing, but again the star is the John Frusciante on guitar. It’s more like a compendium of tracks from their whole history stylistically, and although the lyrics are somewhat cleaner than they used to be, some are just as nonsensical.
Pick up a copy – it’s a great summer set.
